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"Get up, you lazy shrew!"

The leaves in the apprentices' den murmured as a quiet zephyr brushed past them. Robinpaw's eyes were wide and bright, cornflower-blue and full of excitement. He leaned over his brother, stretching out a white bengal paw to nudge his brother.

Hemlockpaw's white pelt ruffled as he opened his blue eyes, much like Robinpaw's. But his pelt has faint, rather smudged bengal markings unlike Robinpaw's coat, which was sharp in contrast.

"Where's Bubblepaw?" Hemlockpaw asked sleepily, looking irate. "And are we going to t-t-train today?" he asked, a yawn slurring his words.

Robinpaw rolled his eyes. "Of course, mouse-brain. We're apprentices, are we not? You probably don't even want to train though . . . you know I'm better than you." He puffed out his chest and raised his chin, smirking down at his brother, who looked bemused.

"Whatever," Hemlockpaw muttered. "I'm getting up."

Robinpaw sniffed, annoyed at his brother's lack of argument. "Oh, and Bubblepaw's waiting outside." He loped outside the den, kicking up dust in Hemlockpaw's face. He pretended not to hear his brother's coughing. Glancing around, Robinpaw saw a short-furred pale brown tomcat with yellow eyes standing next to the camp entrance. Beside him were a cream she-cat with brown eyes and a smaller grey she-cat with large blue eyes.

"Robinpaw, Hemlockpaw, there you are," the lightly-tabby marked brown tomcat snapped. "Quillsmoke is coming in just a moment."

"It was Hemlockpaw's fault," Robinpaw protested. "Sorry, Dippernose," he added as his mentor caught his eye and shook his head slightly.

Bubblepaw's soft grey pelt bushed up with excitement as her mentor, Starlingsight, looked weary, ruffling her cream fur and looking impatient. "Are we ready yet?" Starlingsight meowed, an edge creeping into her voice.

Dippernose looked over Robinpaw's shoulder. "Indeed we are. Quillsmoke's right here." The approaching cat was muscled and had a coat of fawn that reached up to his green eyes. A short scar ran from the bottom of his left eye to his nose. He was an honorable warrior, and Robinpaw felt a familiar twinge of disappointment that he wasn't Quillsmoke's apprentice. Shaking out his pelt, he let eagerness wash over him and glanced over at his mentor expectantly.

Dippernose gazed coolly back for a moment before breaking eye contact and looking around at the group. "Ready?" In turn, Bubblepaw, Hemlockpaw, and their two mentors nodded in turn.

Robinpaw scoffed. Of course I'm ready, he thought indignantly. I've been ready for a hundred moons, let's just get going! Still, he dutifully nodded like the others.

"Let's hunt. The apprentices can split up and we'll watch them as they hunt. Like how the assessment will be," Quillsmoke suggested, pricking his ears as the group made their way into the forest.

Robinpaw cocked his head at Hemlockpaw, turning his ears forward and opening his jaws to scent the air. His brother was doing the same, looking intent on beating him in getting the most prey.

As they walked, Robinpaw gazed around and tried to observe his surroundings, like Dippernose was always bothering him to do. The soft crunching of leaf mulch underneath their paws lulled him into a calm mindset. There were no breezes, yet the forest seemed to move and whisper by itself. The foliage was sparse and pale after a long and unforgiving Leaf-bare, but it was slowly recovering, transitioning into New-leaf. Little shoots of plants were springing up everywhere, ready to go into bloom.

Breathing in the floral scent that hung in the warm air, Robinpaw looked into the sky for a few moments. The clouds were fluffy, rolling in the sky animatedly. The wisps of white disrupted the soft blue of the sky, allowing only the weakest rays of sunlight to punctuate the cloud cover and send dapples onto the forest floor. A quiet breeze kissed his head, and he felt oddly comforted.

The breathing of the cats was the only sound in the air besides the faint rustling of prey in the undergrowth. They had gone deeper into the forest than usual when Quillsmoke held up his tail, drawing to an abrupt halt.

"Robinpaw to the right, Hemlockpaw to the left, and Bubblepaw ahead. Bring back at least three pieces of prey," Dippernose advised them, his eyes full of honest encouragement. "The prey can be of any kind, unlike how the assessment will be. We will be watching and try to stay out of sight unless an emergency or you are finished. Now go!"

Robinpaw felt a thrill of passion and determination run through his body. Bubblepaw and Hemlockpaw hesitated a moment before bounding off, but Robinpaw was gone before Dippernose had finished his last word.

He stepped carefully through the undergrowth, thorns dragging at his pelt but having no way to avoid them. Wincing slightly, he scented the air and stood still, letting his senses take over.

The musky scent of a mouse drew his gaze to straight ahead of him. The smell was fresh, and he pricked his ears, hearing the little pawsteps of the mouse through the leaves. But there was one problem. There was no helpful trail leading the way. He would make way too noise if he so much as moved a fox-length towards the prey, so he would have to do something else.

Robinpaw scanned his surroundings. The foliage was thick in this sheltered part of the forest, but there was a more flat way to get to a large gnarled tree root a few mouse-lengths away that lead to a tree with rough bark. Bark that could be used as paw-holds. . . .

Once an idea got into his head, it gripped him tightly and refused to let go unless he committed to it. He felt a tingle of excitement run up his legs as he leaped silently as a fox towards the tree root and darted up it.

EskerClan cats like himself were not adept to climbing trees, but Robinpaw was graceful as he bounded up the trunk, clinging to the bark. His tail streamed behind him, and he felt adrenaline surge through his veins, getting him to one of the highest branches with ease.

Looking down, Robinpaw realized how far up he was. He was no less than five full fox-lengths high. But he blinked and looked away. Hunt now, worry later. Since he was high up, it would make more since to hunt a bird of some sort. The tree branches would allow him to leap without falling for the most part, growing close together if and sometimes being intertwined.

A flash of white caught Robinpaw's attention. He peered through the branches and saw a white robin sitting on a branch, turned away from him but looking alert and ready to fly away.

A white robin. Robinpaw almost didn't want to hunt it. It was rare, and not seen for every one hundred normal robins - or more. He was named after the robin. It was stunning, rare, and fast. Frostfern, his mother, had saw a magnificent white robin much like that one while trying to find a name for him, and it had fit. He was her most prized kit, and it meant a lot to him, so he paused.

But it was prey. His clanmates needed the prey to recover after Leaf-bare. Treading lightly and moving swiftly through the branches, he kept his eyes set on the robin. He leaped forward, but the robin had realized he was there at the last heartbeat and tried to take off from the branch. Robinpaw twisted midair and snagged the robin with his claw, dragging it down with him.

Just as he was letting out a short yowl of triumph, the branches disappeared beneath him. He had slightly over-jumped and having maneuvered in mid-pounce, was heading towards the ground, leading with his left shoulder.

The ground rushed up to meet him with a crushing impact that drove the breath out of him. Then pain like he had never experienced flared up in his left shoulder, and he screeched in pain, flailing out his limbs in an effort to break his fall - as the rest of his body was still coming down - but to no avail.

Dippernose rushed over from a bush nearby, looking anxious. "Robinpaw, are you okay?!" he asked quickly.

Robinpaw whimpered. Then he looked down at his claws and saw the white robin hooked their, dead from the crash. It's left white wing was stained with blood where he had snagged it. His thoughts swirled. He had fallen and was so mouse-brained to think trying to hunt in the trees was a good idea. Dippernose was probably furious.

But nonetheless, he had caught it.